Minefield for China coal workers

Officially, China has 600,000 sufferers of the lung disease which plagues miners

Two things dominate the skyline above Fuxin in northeastern China: the giant cooling towers of the power station in the middle of town and in the distance, a man-made pyramid called Gan, an enormous pile of slag, residue from the hunt for coal.

If Greenpeace activists could see the Fuxin power station their blood would boil.

At any one time three of the five cooling towers spew incalculable amounts of carbon dioxide into the air. They would, for sure, protest.

Deadly explosion

But one wonders what they would say about Gan and the mines of the Fuxin mining company.

Near Fuxin, standing on a hill above a small private mine, I saw a scene which could easily have come from another century.

Men were enveloped in huge black palls of smoke as they shovelled coal newly brought from the coalface.

At first you had to strain to see there were men there, such was the volume of coal dust which engulfed them.

No masks. You could only imagine what damage to their health this was causing.

Officially there are 600,000 sufferers of pneumoconiosis, the lung disease which plagues miners.

There are said to be 70,000 new cases every year. Many of these men will die. No records are kept to say how many have already died.

It is hard to tell how many men die in mining accidents because there are thousands of privately owned mines in China which cut corners for profit.

Safety measures are ignored, miners are exploited, pit inspectors are often bribed and toll figures are either not revealed or massaged to make them "acceptable".

'Sacrifice'

What seems to be acceptable in china is the "sacrifice" of miners in pursuit of power and profit.

China needs power to maintain its economic growth, currently at an enviable high of 11 per cent a year. And coal is the way ahead.

There are plans to build another 500 coal-fired power stations in the next 10 years.

And with estimated coal reserves of around 115 billion metric tonnes, what happens below ground is essential to what happens above.

Mining for coal is like going to war, Xiao Shun says [Photo by Tony Birtley]

A whistle pierces the chill of the air, made by a disabled man wheeling his cart up the mist-shrouded streets of Sunjiawan.

His name is Xiao Shun, he is 53-years-old and he sells tofu to the mining community.

Once he was a miner until he broke both legs and an arm in a pit cave-in. No big compensation for him, only a small pension and the memories of the dangers in the bowels of the earth.

"When we go to the coalface, it is like soldiers going to the battlefront," he explains.

"No one knows who is going to die and who is going to come back. That is why miners eat and drink their salaries because they don't know if they’ll be here tomorrow."

Uncertainty

Tomorrow, for the mining communities of Sunjiawan and Fuxin, is an uncertain thing.

The coal reserves in Laoning province where the two communities are located are running out.

Looking over the houses only one in three chimneys belch smoke.

Many of the houses are empty, front doors padlocked, windows boarded up, a testimony to the number of people who have gone elsewhere in search of work.

In Laoning there are about 170,000 unemployed miners.

Miners get little of the profits raked in by mine owners [Photo by Tony Birtley]

You can see many standing on street corners of Fuxin, shovel in hand, offering their services for daily manual work.

The profits raked in by the mine owners are not reflected in the lifestyle of the miners.

Looking at the rows of single-storey houses around the Sunjiawan pit is like taking a peak back in time. Most families live in two rooms, a basic kitchen and a bedroom-cum-sitting room. No indoor toilet. No running water.

On a cold December day the temperature was nudging -10 degrees Centigrade. At least coal is cheap to keep them warm.

In Fuxin a statue of Mao Zedong stands in the centre of a large traffic island.

It is one of only a few left in the country.

He stands with his arm raised facing Fuxin power station, the cooling towers emitting huge palls of smoke.

They say miners' conditions have improved since his days.

It is hard to imagine what they were like before.

They say China's future is bright. But there is still a shadow hanging over the future of Chinese miners and their odds for survival.

If miners' conditions have improved since Mao's time, it is hard to imagine what they were like then [Photo by Tony Birtley]